The use of surgically implanted grafts has greatly improved the quality of life of patients suffering vascular and other related diseases. As these are highly specialised medical devices which are customised to a high degree according to the type of graft and the patient being treated, sophisticated design and ordering methodologies have been developed to ensure that physicians are able to reliably design or specify the required graft and then order the graft in a timely and cost effective manner.
One such ordering system involves the use of specialised software which is distributed to physicians. This software leads the physician through the graft design process and validates design parameters as entered by the physician. As an example, the software would display the particular design parameter such as the diameter of a renal aorta, then provide a recommended value for this diameter and further limit the range of diameters that a physician may enter when designing or specifying this aspect of the graft. In this example of graft design, a number of standardised design parameters and associated locations have been developed to specify a given type of graft.
Once the physician has completed the graft design, an order suitable for sending to the manufacturer of the graft can be printed from the ordering system. This order can include all relevant information such as patient and physician details, graft design specification and a purchase order number.
Alternatively the physician may send the order, including the specified graft information to a hospital, where the operation is to be performed and instruct the hospital to raise a purchase order number. This number is then forwarded with the order to the manufacturer of the graft. Whilst this system is clearly preferable to a purely paper based system that does not include any intrinsic validation of the graft design as part of the order generation process, this approach suffers from a number of serious disadvantages.
One of these disadvantages is that some physicians will continue to use older versions of the software instead of the latest version. As new and improved products are developed, the software will require updating to include these additional products. This then requires the physical distribution of software updates to each physician who wishes to use the software. This adds greatly to the time and costs involved in maintaining the software. As a consequence, individual physicians may be using many different versions of software which can cause confusion in the ordering process with the manufacturer having to be familiar with a number of different types of ordering schemes corresponding to different software versions.
Typically, the centralised office that receives a physician's order is then responsible for the coordinating and shipping of the complete order. The order may be met either by using standard sized components from existing stock, manufacturing customised components or otherwise by ordering customised components that are not manufactured locally from another site that manufactures the required component. Given the degree of complexity in this process, it is critical that an ordering system provide the relevant office with a uniform and efficient format to allow them to coordinate this process.
Another significant disadvantage arising from relying on software installed on individual machines, is that the relevant software must be installed on a computer that the physician has access to. This installation process will often require phone support by the manufacturer, especially if the software is being installed by someone without information technology skills. This further adds to the cost of supporting the software and also to the degree of inconvenience that a user of the software will suffer each time a new version of the software requires installation. As a consequence, manufacturers have had to consider carefully whether to release a new software version having improved design and verification procedures related to more complicated graft designs. As these features are complex to integrate into the software design process it is likely that a number of versions will have to be released in a relatively short time with all of the associated difficulties described above.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system for designing and ordering a medical implant capable of being readily updated.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system for designing and ordering a medical implant capable of processing design and ordering information in a centralised location.